From Six
by H.E. Gray
Summary: Creating a jutsu is dangerous. Too bad an eleven year old Naruto didn't know that. AU, Naruto with MPD.
1. Prologue

_**Summary:** Creating a jutsu is dangerous. Too bad an eleven-year-old Naruto didn't know that. AU, Naruto with MPD._

_**Warning:** Some bad language. _

_**Disclaimer**: Not mine, apart from the parts that are._

_**A/N: **Edited version of the prologue is now done. Thanks go to martinique, who betaed and to Duke Bonez who pointed out some mistakes in the original I really should have caught.

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**From Six: Prologue****

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Naruto slept uneasily, hearing the low babbling of voices permeating through his mind, rising out of nowhere, snatches of speech-

"What makes you think I play fair?"

"I'm not interested in games, Konohamaru."

"Do you think she'd prefer the white chocolate or the dark?"

"Get out of my way."

"You shouldn't break a promise."

-that flowed around him, fluting over him and under him, past him and through him, sinking into his mind and his dreams to tug at the edges of his consciousness, his left hand twitching to a powerful rhythm that thrummed somewhere that he could sort-of-but-not-quite hear.

If he had been awake, he would have been in agony; the feeling of his chakra pools splitting into separate flows burning him up, twisting around new presences that were slowly edging in on his mind. He would have seen the tinge of red that was always in the corner of his eyes be pushed back slowly, overwhelmed by _too many, too many;_ aching to his bones as his body was forced to adjust to an absence of easy power, forced to adjust the coils of his energy even as they split themselves again and again.

He was lucky, he was asleep, and because, although Kyuubi's chakra was being forced back from the lake of blue-and-red, the waters slowly turning just-blue, bright-blue, it still crept into his muscles and his blood and every part of his body it could ferret itself into, numbing the pain to keep its host asleep and silent. Inside a cage, a fox paced with vicious intent, but Naruto was unaware of that too; unaware of eyes staring at the fox, and then turning away as if it were no unusual sight.

Naruto was asleep, and he was missing what could have been the breaking-point of his eleven years; missing what could have finally destroyed the demon brat from inside out, the pain bubbling through him, his blood like molten fire and his nerves screaming in agony.

An eleven year old Naruto had just created what would be classed as an A-class forbidden jutsu when the next person who decided to try Naruto's jutsu ended up brain-dead and broken on the floor, his eyes glassy as he stared up at the ceiling, floating in a sea of pain. He had created lives and memories with hand seals he 'just thought looked cool'. He had changed his whole life and turned it _inside-fucking-out_.

It was a good thing for Naruto that Kyuubi had no desire to spend his life trapped inside a mindless container; knew that if Naruto broke he would be put to death as a risk, a danger, a potential demon returning from what the children thought as death and what the adults knew as imprisonment. Lucky. Naruto was very lucky, and he never knew just how lucky he was.

* * *

"_Naruto, you failed the end of year test again," Iruka said, his voice disappointed. Naruto cringed back into his chair, unable to force his customary wide grin onto his face as Iruka sighed. Behind them, Naruto could hear the faint snickers going from one classmate to another, whispers that he wasn't meant to hear, but could hear anyway. Naruto stiffened his shoulders, and refused to turn around and see just who was laughing at him – just another form a cowardice, another hope that maybe they didn't really mean it._

_Iruka stared directly into his eyes, flinching away from the hurt that Naruto was trying to hide. "Naruto," Iruka murmured, too low for any of the others to hear. "Why do you keep on trying? You can't even pull off a decent Henge and that's one of the most basic ninja skills. At this rate, you're certainly going to fail the graduation exam – you could just drop out."_

"_No way, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, although his heart was twisting at his teacher's words. "I don't give up! I'll do it next year, I promise. I'll get better."_

_Iruka sighed, and ruffled Naruto's hair, messing the spikes up further. "Maybe if you laid off the pranks for a while..." he said, but there was a forced note in his tone. Naruto ignored this, and grinned brightly instead._

"_Maybe I'll do that," he said, but his posture clearly conveyed a 'no way', as he turned and bounced back to his seat as if nothing untoward had happened. He ignored Uchiha Sasuke's condescending look, looked away from the best in his year. His gaze caught on Haruno Sakura's, and her pretty green eyes were faintly disgusted at him and his weakness ("Nothing like Sasuke-kun," a brown-haired girl whispered smugly in her ear, and Naruto kept his smile on)._

"_Alright, class!" Iruka said, clapping his hands together. "You all have your reports for the year, and the results have been varied. If you want to check your standing in the class, check the noticeboard outside."_

_Naruto didn't need to check. He knew exactly where he'd be – second-last, just above Osamu Kenshin who'd dropped out to train as a blacksmith under his grandfather. It was a pity, because Kenshin had pretty much been the only sop to Naruto's pride; the thought that he wasn't actually the very last in class._

"_It's been a pleasure – or not, for some of you; Kiba, please stop barking at Akamaru – to have taught you this year. You have a one month holiday and I hope to see you all back next year." Iruka looked around the rest of the class, a faint smile on his face as several perked up under his gaze. "While not all of you will return for your last year at the academy, I wish you all well. Class dismissed."_

_There were shouts of glee as people scrambled for the door, several jumping over desks in their hurry, elbowing through the crush. "Wait 'til I tell Dad about my report," one boy cheered as he left, and his friend high-fived him. Naruto scowled at their backs, and picked up his bag. Iruka seemed like he was going to say something, but shook his head and apparently decided against it, instead shooing Naruto out of the room, just after a coolly aloof Sasuke. _

_Naruto walked home, weaving past the crowds that seemed to open a wary pathway for him, unfriendly eyes watching him and people falling silent as he moved. He considered going to the park and playing on the swings or something for a while, but decided against it. He... didn't really feel like being around other people right now._

_As he got further into the villages, he leapt up onto the rooftops, taking the shorter jumps at a run and barely noticing as the older ninjas zipped by at blurring speeds. It didn't really occur to him to walk on the road; that was for civilians, and whatever Iruka said, Naruto was never going to give up on his dream to become a ninja. He wanted to be a ninja, he wanted to be Hokage and he wanted everyone to acknowledge him, whatever he had to do for it. He would not give up, not even if he couldn't do some stupid jutsu that wasn't even useful anyway – Naruto was skilled in self-deception, refusing to see a truth in front of his face._

_He finally reached his apartment, waving to the old lady who had started to smile back after he'd helped her with her shopping bags once or twice, and pulled out the key which he hung around his neck. He'd quickly found that he had a habit of losing it on a regular basis and it had been Iruka who had rolled his eyes and given Naruto a piece of black string to tie around his neck._

_Sticking it in the lock and twisting hard (the lock was sort of rusty, and when he'd been younger he had barely been able to open it), Naruto stepped inside the mess he called home, kicking aside a couple of books he'd left scattered in front of the door. He continued to move, making his way to the window where he could see the Hokages' heads from where they were carved into the mountain, the sun halfway down the sky and casting long shadows across them._

_From here, the Fourth looked as though he were smiling at Naruto; a trick of the light maybe, but Naruto was happy to convince himself that, no, it was actually real. He stared at the face, and tried to imagine himself up there – and felt his heart skip, once, twice, when he realised that he couldn't. _

_He sighed, and turned away from the window. The red clock he had hanging on the wall read four thirty, and Naruto mentally added an hour – he should really get around to changing that, but he could never be bothered. Anyway, it was an easy excuse for whenever Iruka asked him why he was late._

_He pulled out a cup of instant ramen, and began to absentmindedly prepare it. He looked around his apartment, and saw some notes scattered loosely across the floor from where he'd thrown them last night, unable to wrap his mind around the concepts. It wasn't that he didn't try to control his chatsra, chakra, whatever (maybe he should start listening to Iruka in class) but more that whenever he tried, he didn't seem to be able to do anything with it – so he drew on more of his power, but that just seemed to make it worse. He could still remember his disastrous attempts at Henge. He'd ended up looking more like the fat woman who ran the grocery shop than Iruka. _

_Maybe, he thought. Maybe, he was just going about this all wrong. So he couldn't master the same jutsus as everyone else – that didn't mean he couldn't invent his own. He grabbed his ramen and a pair of chopsticks, and began to shove it in his mouth as he thought. Sure, they hadn't been taught anything about making jutsus, but it couldn't be that hard, right? Just use some hand seals, draw on some chakra, and boom, instant amazingly-cool jutsu of his own creation. Iruka would probably be so in awe of Naruto's new and really cool jutsu, that he'd just pass him instantly._

_He chewed on his food, making a face at a crunchy noodle that cracked between his teeth. Maybe he should let it cook longer next time. That was unimportant though – what was important was this new jutsu he was going to create, which would do everything and be so amazing that when he used it to defeat Sasuke, Sakura-chan would instantly fall in love with him ('you're so strong, Naruto-kun!') and the Hokage would step down, proclaiming Naruto Godaime, and everyone in the village would turn out to cheer him, throwing flowers, and there would be girls all over him, but of course he'd stay faithful to Sakura-chan..._

_Really, if Naruto had been honest with himself, as he finished his ramen and managed to find an unused piece of paper and a pen, then he would have realised that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and that the jutsu he was creating with slow and cautious hand-writing was more likely to kill him than do anything amazing. Naruto made a policy of not being honest with himself though, or he would have given up on being a ninja years ago and tried his hand at gardening or something._

_His hopes were rising as he scrawled out symbols in the handwriting that only Iruka (if he was lucky) and Naruto himself could decipher. Snake first, then ox, then ram, then dragon, then dog, combined with bunshin and another ram to solidify... Naruto was making it up as he went along, and convincing himself that this was the best idea he ever had. Finishing his masterpiece with what was meant to be a flourish, but looked more of a squiggle, Naruto put his pen down and waited impatiently for the ink to dry, blowing on the symbols gently to help them along._

_The sun was beginning to set over the mountain, and Naruto blinked in surprise. Surely he hadn't taken that long? He shook his head, discarded the thought as unimportant, and then, slowly, began to move his hands in the seal movements, feeling chakra begin to fill his veins as he pushed it out._

_He nearly faltered mid-seal as a flash of green wound across his vision, but managed to keep going, even as it snaked around him, coiling across his arms and legs. He couldn't feel anything from it, but could see it – and that was unnerving. The next hand seal, and grey was added to the green, subtly edging in on the corners of his vision, clashing with the Kyuubi-red that was already there, that he'd grown so used to that he found it odd when the grey began to push it back. Another, and then light blue flickered through, dancing around his head – dark red came, sinking in with the green and forming a jagged line across his stomach – and yellow; bright, vibrant yellow, encasing his fists and painting them as he continued the hand movements._

_As he moved on, the colours twisted off his body, wrapping around him, moving faster and faster, blurring into a kaleidoscope that made him dizzy-_

_And then, as he finished the last seal, everything vanished._

_Naruto stopped; looked around. Nothing. He blinked a couple of times. Still nothing. What the- That was so lame! He scowled, waiting for a legendary summon creature to pop out of nowhere, and say something about being late. Or a delayed firestorm. Or amazing super powers._

_Hey, that was a thought. Maybe he could fly now. He eyed the window for a few moments, and deflated. Who was he kidding? Still... Hesitantly, he tried to flex his muscles in case the jutsu had increased his strength – nothing. He tried to pick up his table (just in case, just in case, he told himself) but succeeded only in straining a muscle. He tried to run faster than light, but tripped over his own feet and slammed into his fridge._

_So not fair. Someone up there was laughing at him – all the build up, and then nothing for his efforts? Naruto scowled, and yawned, tiredness suddenly smashing into him with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Feeling decidedly jilted, he staggered over to his bed, not even bothering to change out of his orange jumpsuit, and was asleep before he could even pull the cover over himself._

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Naruto woke with a headache throbbing through his mind and his entire body aching with suppressed pain. His eyes burnt slightly as he stared at his off-white ceiling, trying to work out what he'd done last night that made him hurt this much.He couldn't remember pulling off any all-night training sessions, trying to do sit ups and press ups until his arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably as he had done before. No, the last thing he remembered was pulling off that stupid jutsu that didn't even work- 

He rolled off his bed, hitting the floor with a thud and a groan as he whacked his elbow on the bare wood.

"Goin' to be late for school," he mumbled like a zombie, before pausing. "Wait. Month holiday. Don't have school. Damn."

Stumbling over to his fridge, he pulled out a carton of milk and drank straight from it, nearly choking halfway through a swallow and shaking himself awake. Sighing contentedly, he threw the now-empty carton into the bin, and looked over at his cupboards in hope of some aspirin magically appearing.

"That sucks," he grumbled, when, predictably, nothing mysteriously teleported itself to his apartment.

**'My head,'** a voice said deliberately, in reply, '**Is _killing_ me.'**

Naruto froze.

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_END PROLOGUE_

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_If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Reviews are much appreciated. :D _


	2. Chapter 1

_**Summary:** Creating a jutsu is dangerous. Too bad an eleven-year-old Naruto didn't know that. AU, Naruto with MPD._

_**Warning:** Some bad language. _

_**Disclaimer**: Not mine, apart from the parts that are._

_**A/N: **Wooh, new edited Chapter One. I'd advise any of the old readers to go over this, because the characters have changed slightly. Thanks to martinique, who betaed. (And anyone who's looking for a good slash fic, check out her story, 'The Little Things' and leave a review.) :D. To be honest, I've had this done and betaed for the past week, but I... sorta forgot to put it up. Oops._

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**Chapter One**

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_(**'My head,'** a voice said deliberately, in reply, '**Is killing me.'**_

_Naruto froze.)_

There was something to be said for the academy. Despite all its flaws, despite the fact that after all those years of training it still turned out genin who were unprepared for the reality of life as a ninja, despite the face that the teachers had a tendency to concentrate on the 'prodigies', despite the fact that they assumed a person's parents would have taught them such necessary skills as reading and writing, and made no allowances otherwise – despite all of that, it gave very precise instructions on how to deal with such problems as intruders on home territory.

Of course, Naruto couldn't actually remember the instructions. He _knew_ he should have paid attention in class more often, but he just kept on getting distracted. So. Think this through logically. Someone had said something, when there should be no one else but him in his apartment. He glanced over his shoulder warily, and then up at the ceiling. No one was there.

Okay. Maybe he had imagined it. He did have an vicious headache, and it wasn't like the so-called intruder had said something particularly threatening. He waited a few moments, and when nothing spoke up, moved over to the cupboards to grab a packet of instant ramen.

**_'Having ramen for breakfast isn't healthy,'_ **someone chirped up. **_'Maybe you should have some fruit or something instead.'_**

Pause. Naruto thought this through, his heart thudding slowly. It was unlikely that he'd just imagine voices twice in a row, but still... Not really sensing the evil intruder vibes off that voice. Seriously, who broke into someone's apartment, just to give them instructions on what to eat? Now that Naruto thought about it, the voices had been different – so at least two intruders then. Mentally, he named them Grumpy and Chirpy.

Someone snickered. Naruto twisted his head to look around his kitchen warily, looking this way and that. He couldn't see anyone. This was getting... kind of creepy. Not scary creepy, but what-the-hell-are-these-people-up-to creepy. This was the kind of thing some of the ANBU who helped him out from time to time when he was being chased by a mob would do; hide in his apartment and throw their voices around. Most of them went in for the whole 'faceless persona' thing, but there were a couple who just liked to take the piss out of everything. Like Dog. He was a bit weird.

...Major off-topic there. This was the kind of thing that stopped him from getting good grades at the academy. He just couldn't concentrate on one subject for more than a minute or two.

"Dog?" Naruto called uncertainly. "This isn't funny."

Silence, and Naruto thought of something, running the voices through his mind again. "And since when did you sound like a kid?" Those voices were definitely not the ones of a fully-grown male. He looked around again, trying to catch the tell-tale shimmer that signified someone hiding behind a jutsu, but – nothing. This was really starting to confuse him.

**'This is taking too long,' **another voice snarled, low and feral. There was the sound of a short scuffle, while Naruto spun desperately, not so sure that this was a joke anymore. There was a jolt low in his stomach, then a feeling, like he was being wrenched forward-

His body collapsed to the ground, knocking against the kitchen table and sending pieces of paper flying-

**_'...Couldn't you have been a little more patient?'_ **was the last thing he heard before everything faded into black.

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"Is he awake?" a voice said, and Naruto groggily identified it as the growling voice, sounding distinctly disgruntled.

"No, he isn't," Chirpy said, exasperated. "If you had _waited_, then he would have been able to adjust himself-"

There was a silence, in which Naruto could imagine Feral just _looking_ at Chirpy, as if he had said something undeniably stupid. Naruto knew that look inside-out – it was the one half the class turned on him when he chose to ask what chakra was, or something to that effect.

He blinked, slowly, watching as the ceiling came into view. Well, that was weird. He felt like he was seeing everything through orange lenses, casting a distinctive glow over – a stone ceiling? Huh. He wasn't at home anymore then. No big- wait.

He tried to exclaim something along the lines of 'what the hell, I've been kidnapped!' but it came out closer to "Whtllvbinkgrh!"

The pause that followed indicated that everyone was staring at him with a variety of expressions on their faces. Naruto pushed himself up to see the people around him, and nodded to himself. Yep, he was right. Uzumaki Naruto was _amazing_ when it came to reading silences.

He stared at the closest one to him; the one who was staring back with his head half-cocked to one side and a bewildered look on his face. The boy was glowing, a sort of soft blue compressed into his skin, which disturbed him faintly. Naruto began to feel that there was something wrong with this situation. Something very wrong. His stomach was twisting, which either meant the milk was off again, or he was in trouble.

"Why," he finally said, "Do you look like me?" The boy did look like him; same eyes, same whisker marks, his hair was tied back in ponytail (which looked ridiculous because the spikes still stood out, and frankly, it gave him the appearance of some kind of spiked bush) but that was the only difference.

_Why the hell are you glowing? _he wanted to add, too, but he decided he was pushing it with getting one question out ungarbled.

"Oh, that's easy," the boy said, blinking a few times before smiling widely. Chirpy, Naruto mentally identified him. "I look like you, because I am you!"

...There was something off about that statement.

"That doesn't work," Naruto said slowly. Chirpy looked at him, as if expecting him to elaborate. Naruto did so. "You can't be me," he continued, "Because I'm me. And there can't be two mes, because then we wouldn't be me." He was confusing himself with that, and decided to stop there.

"Actually," a different voice said – Grumpy. "There aren't two of you. There are six."

Naruto swivelled to stare at him – and ooh, there was himself staring back at him, almost identical except a bit taller and more muscular, with a deep yellow glow emanating from him. Man, this was confusing. He could feel his headache, which had oddly dissipated, returning in full force, throbbing behind his eyes.

"I don't get this," he finally complained. "If you're me, then why did you kidnap me?"

"Kidnap?" Chirpy asked, then his eyes widened in comprehension. "Oh, of course. You wouldn't know where you are, because he," he nodded towards a third figure, who could only be Feral, crimson glow added to crimson eyes and a gaunt, pale face staring at him, "Dragged you in without saying anything." There was a note of reproach in his tone, and Naruto got the feeling that this was the closest Chirpy ever came to real disapproval.

"Not my problem he's stupid," Feral growled challengingly, his eyes fixing on Chirpy as if daring him to say something.

"Enough," another voice said, monotonous. "Arguing will get us nowhere." Naruto turned again (this was starting to feel like a fricking roundabout) passing over one boy lounging back against a wall, and stopping on another him; a boy with his hair cropped within an inch of his skull, emotionless face and suppressed grey glow, hovering across his skin. He met Naruto's eyes without concern, apparently evaluating him, then spoke.

"We did not kidnap you," he said. "We are aspects of your personality; in effect, what you could have become. This," he here gestured around the cave, "Is inside your mind. Your body is still in your apartment."

Naruto bit his lip. "Uh," he said. "What?"

The other hims exchanged glances, and it was Chirpy who sent a pleading look to the final boy; the one who had been leaning against the wall. Green light was flowing around him in odd patterns, more... _free_ than the others' lights, for lack of a better explanation. There was something foxy about him; his grin was sly and his eyes guardedly amused. They were blue though, Naruto was glad to see. Feral's red eyes had disturbed him.

"It's like this," Fox said, finally. He didn't seem too enthused at having to explain, and the look he sent Chirpy was clear – _you owe me_. "Remember that jutsu you were screwin' with last night?"

Naruto nodded slowly.

"Yeah, well. That created five different sets of memories, each with a new personality. _We_," he moved his hand to encompass all of them, "Are those personalities. We're basically who you could have become, yeah? Y'know, the whole, what would have happened if someone had done somethin' else?"

"Yeah," Naruto said slowly. "I get that. How do you know about the jutsu I was working on though?"

Fox rolled his eyes. "We have access to all your memories, 'cause you're the host body." He looked around at the others, and then shrugged. "I reckon that's all you need to know."

"Wait!" Naruto exclaimed. "What about- How do I get you out of my mind?"

Fox grinned viciously at that, ignoring the mumbles around them. "That's easy," he said. "You don't. You're stuck with us."

"What?" Naruto squawked. "But-"

"It's not that bad," Monotone interrupted. "We've been comparing lives while you slept. We each have our own skills which we can add to your arsenal." His voice didn't change, but he tilted his head slightly. "That would prove a huge advantage to you."

"_And_," Fox drawled out. "With us here, you aren't ever goin' to be alone, yeah? Doesn't it get lonely for you? All the villagers glarin' all the time?" His voice altered slightly, almost sing-song hypnotic. "Do you want to be alone again?"

Naruto watched Fox with wide eyes, and it felt like something inside him was swaying to his voice. To never be alone again. To have people who'd always support him. The thought of it was... unbelievable, making hope well up inside of him.

Grumpy was hissing something at Fox, the yellow glow flickering with his anger, but Fox seemed to slouch back further, his mouth taking the shape of an easy grin as he shrugged elegantly. Naruto watched them for a few moments, and then shook his head.

"You're right," he said. "I guess you can stay, if-" He hesitated over the words, not wanting to say them, but somehow, desperate to. "If you promise not to leave me alone."

It was Feral who spoke up first, shifting slightly in a threatening manner as he tilted his head backwards. He stared at Naruto for a long few moments, then grunted. "I promise," he growled out, and Grumpy looked slightly indignant as he turned from hissing at Fox.

Fox was grinning wickedly, and Naruto felt a shiver run through his spine as he purred out his promise; Chirpy spoke uncertainly; Monotone's words were precise, his blue eyes sharp and finally Grumpy muttered out his own promise, shifting the shirt he was wearing slightly.

Naruto felt himself smiling widely – he had friends, and they were going to be here for him, whatever happened. A thought struck him suddenly. He couldn't keep calling them by the nicknames he'd come up with. For one, they were ridiculous, and for another, Naruto suspected they might take offense at them. Grumpy in particular.

"So..." he said, forming the word carefully. "What are your names?"

It was Chirpy who answered, cheerful smile on his face. "Naruto!"

Naruto stopped. "What, all of you?"

Chirpy nodded. Naruto blinked. "Can't you... have different names instead?" he asked, and the five looked at each other.

"It's possible," Monotone said finally. He looked contemplative, but even so, it was Chirpy who decided on a name first.

"I guess you can call me Naru," he said, brightly. "Won't be hard to remember, at least."

Grumpy grumbled slightly under his breath, before shaking bangs out of his eyes and changing the pose he was standing in to a more militaristic one. "Legacy will do for me," he said, and there was a hint of self-importance in his voice that started Fox snickering insanely and Feral made his opinion clear with an incredulous look. Legacy glared at them, as Fox managed to suppress his laughter, and spoke up.

"Red's good with me," he said, and there was a sort of what-are-you-_on _silence as everyone stared at him.

"Why Red?" Legacy asked. Red shrugged.

"I dunno," he said. "I just felt it was appropriate, yeah? I mean," and here he threw a glance Naruto's way, as his words became mocking. "Obviously a super-cool ninja like me has to have a super-cool name, too. I just think Red is... cool."

Naruto tried not to bristle at Red's tone, and succeeded only in sticking his tongue out. Naru looked disapproving, but it was Feral that broke the tension.

"Shi," he muttered, and Naruto really couldn't help but compare his voice to a dog or something. There was a pause, and he shook himself out of his thoughts, instead settling for looking confused.

"Shi?" he questioned, and Feral sneered.

"My name," he said. "You can call me Shi."

It was Legacy who seemed to put things together, but Naruto honestly had no clue what Legacy was looking indignant over. "You were laughing at my name, when you wanted to use _that_?" Legacy asked. "Subtle. Really subtle."

"C'mon," Red said, his eyes dancing. "Even you have to admit your name was more pretentious than Shi's, yeah?"

"At least mine wasn't such a _blatant_ reference-" Legacy snapped.

"Enough," Monotone said, and Legacy fell into silence. Monotone looked at them all, and glanced down at his faintly glowing arm, before sighing. "Grey will be fine for me."

Naruto perked up at this, the name reminding him of a question he had ages ago. "Why are you lot all glowing?" he asked, and Red raised an eyebrow.

"You're glowin' too," he said, and startled, Naruto looked down at himself, catching a faint aura of orange.

"Oh," he said slowly. "Why?"

It was Grey who answered – Naruto got the feeling that Grey was more willingly informative than any of the others. "The colours represent our inner souls. They reflect who we really are. As we are in a soul room – the area within your mind – the colours are more obvious, due to our actual essences being present."

Naruto sort of got it, but he hoped there weren't going to be any tests on the stuff like that. His mind was spinning from overload of information. "Okay," he said after a while. "I understand. Is that all?"

"No," Grey said firmly. "There's several facts you should know about us."

There was a subtle shifting among the others, as if they were wary of what Grey was going to reveal. Red, in particular, was sharp-eyed, his mouth sealed in a flat line. Naruto tensed, but listened.

"Firstly, your chakra supply will be a lot lower than you originally remember it as. This is because it has been split between all of us; not definitely evenly. You should still have the major part of it, but you may need to do some chakra building exercises before you go running off to do very high-level jutsus." He levelled a look at Naruto, as if hearing his thoughts (which were running somewhere along the line of _'They stole my chakra!'_) and continued. "This is not necessarily a bad thing. At your previous power-levels you were incapable of accomplishing many low-level techniques. Now, however, they should be within your range."

Naruto was simply moving his mouth up and down, as if trying and failing to find the right words. Grey seemed unbothered by this.

"Secondly, we are able to take control of your body."

This was all Naruto needed to explode, shouting out "WHAT?" at the top of his voice, not noticing Red clasping his hands over his ears, or Shi growling, the noise rumbling away like a lawnmower.

"We can only take over if you let us!" Naru exclaimed, trying to head off the fight before it truly started.

(_Or if you're asleep, unconscious or otherwise occupied_ Red muttered, but Naruto didn't hear him)

"Still-" Naruto tried to protest, but Grey kept speaking, implacably.

"This may come in use, as each of us are able to deal with certain situations. Red, from what he says, is reasonably adept at using genjutsu. For a situation requiring subtlety, it might be best to allow him control." Grey paused and seemed to think for a moment. "Finally, you will be able to hear us and talk to us in your mind – silent communication, effectively."

"I-" Naruto began, and then screwed his face up in an approximation of a pout. "Yeah, whatever. That everything?"

"No," Red said. "'Cause we had to explain all this crap to you, I'm sayin' you owe us a favour."

Naruto looked uneasy at that, as did several of the others, although Shi seemed more interested in running his tongue over elongated canines purposefully and looking intimidating. "What favour?" he asked.

"Orange," Red said. "Why are we wearin' it? It's like a walkin' target."

"I _like_ orange," Naruto protested.

"That's obvious," Red said. "Doesn't change the fact that someone's even painted a handy 'please hit here' spot on the back with the spiral, yeah? Get rid of it."

"It's my body!" Naruto yelped, and things went downhill from there.

------------

"Can't believe... making me get rid of my jumpsuits... bastards..." Naruto grumbled, his voice fading in and out of audibility as he walked down the streets, hands shoved in his pockets. Eventually, all five of the other hims had put their feet down and declared that orange was henceforth _banned_ and that they were going clothes shopping. As if that wasn't enough, Red had made him stand in front of a bathroom mirror and change his appearance as well, using stupid henge over and over again until they'd morphed into a skinny brown-haired boy of the same height and weight as him, but lacking the whisker marks.

Naruto still wasn't sure why he'd been told to change his appearance, but he accepted it anyway. He suspected Red made a habit of winning every argument he got into.

'**'Course,' **Red said lazily. **'There's no point in fightin' if you aren't goin' to win.'**

Naruto mumbled something under his breath, causing a couple of people passing by to look at him with faint consternation. He ignored them, and was walking past a large clothing store when Naru called his attention to it.

**'Why don't we go in there?' **Naru asked, and Naruto shrugged.

"The owners don't really like me," he whispered – whatever Grey had said about talking within his mind, Naruto hadn't quite got the hang of it yet. "I kinda pranked them a while ago."

'**That's why we're in henge,'** Red said in a patronising voice, and Naruto made a face.

"Oh. Yeah. Cool," he muttered, and slunk into the shop as if expecting someone to appear and throw him out. Instead, much to his surprise, the shopkeeper materialised in front of him, all smiles and how-may-I-help-you? "Well, now," she said with a beaming smile. "What's a fine young boy like yourself doing here? I'm Akirashi Emi, one of the owners of this store."

Naruto nearly feel over at the effusive welcome, his eyes widening. "Er," he said, and then Red was grumbling and instructing him on what to say (although, he was quick to point out, if this wasn't for his benefit too, Naruto would have to _pay _for his help).

**'Your name,' **Red instructed, '**Is Seito Daichi. You are an academy student, and you're here because your mother says you need some new clothes – preferably some that will help you in blending in.'**

Naruto repeated all this, and the woman clapped her hands together. "I know just the things," she said, pulling him over. Naruto was slightly overwhelmed by this woman, when he remembered her throwing whatever was nearby at him and screaming at 'that demon' to get out of her shop.She pointed him at a rack of clothes with a smile, saying that they 'should be about your size', and then left to greet another customer with an effusive 'Morino-san!'

Beginning to look through the clothes, Naruto wasn't entirely sure what he should go for. He'd never had this much choice before. He pushed some pairs of dark grey shorts across the racking, and then stopped at Grey's call.

**'The shorts,' **Grey pointed out. **'They'll be good.' **

"Grey is _lame_," Naruto muttered softly. "Black would be better, wouldn't it?"

**'Grey blends better,' **Grey said firmly, and with a sigh, Naruto pulled out a pair of the knee-length shorts and held them against himself. They looked like they would fit, and the price wasn't bad, even if he assumed the shopkeeper would hike it up a bit. They always did.

"There's only one pair of grey," he said, barely moving his lips, and Grey sighed.

**'And a pair of black then,' **he said reluctantly, and Legacy laughed at the emotion in Grey's voice.

Moving onto t-shirts, Naruto hovered between a dark green and a dark brown, both plain. He was trying to query the others when he became aware of a man's presence behind him, and slowly turned to look. Unconsciously, his eyes traced the two diagonal scars slashing across the man's face, and the cold expression he wore, and Naruto felt himself wilting for lack of a better word.

**'Switch with me,' **Red said, and it was with relief that Naruto felt his spirit 'jump', Red's sliding into place in the space of a split-second. The man's eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch as Red slouched slightly, now apparently unconcerned with his presence, when before, the boy had been tense and frightened. Turning away, Red hummed as he grabbed both the green and the brown shirt, and then, on second thought, another green shirt as well.

Checking the prices, he relayed them to Grey who added them together carefully and approved the cost. Still humming, Red moved as if to pass the man by, but the man blocked his way. Red glanced up, amusement clear on his face as he spoke. "There a problem, Morino-san?"

"You were talking to yourself," 'Morino-san' said bluntly. Red looked at him.

"Was I?" he asked, and Morino frowned, making his face even more forbidding.

"You were," he said, and Red shrugged.

"Guess I was then," he said. "Can I pay for these please, Akirashi-san?" The woman came over to the counter and Red winced as he withdrew the frog wallet. A frog. There were going to be _words_ about this. Morino didn't seem happy about being ignored, and Red resisted the temptation to grin as he paid, taking the plastic bag offered and thanking Akirashi politely, ignoring her murmuring **of** 'what a _sweet_ boy' as he left.

**'Were you trying to annoy Morino?' **Legacy asked, and Red nodded faintly. They all considered this. **'Why?' **Legacy finally asked.

'**He's a jounin, yeah?' **Red said within their head. **'If we can interest him enough, we can get him to teach us some stuff. I'm gettin' him interested by annoyin' him. He's followin' us now, and when we're out of-'**

His thoughts cut off as Morino's hand clasped down on his shoulder, hard, disrupting his henge and leaving Red staring up at Morino with bored blue eyes. "Y'know, this probably counts as stalkin'," he drawled. Morino's eye twitched.

"Why were you under henge?" Morino demanded, and Red shrugged.

"Why're you stalkin' me?" he replied. There was a long silence.

**'Switch back,' **Red told Naruto, and Naruto didn't have time to protest otherwise as he was suddenly shoved back into control of his own body.

"You were talking to yourself, and you feel the need to go under henge. That's suspicious behaviour," Morino said bluntly. Naruto blinked at him. Morino tightened his hold. "What's your name, boy?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said, keeping his voice steady. "You're crushing my shoulder." With a startled blink, Morino released him, and there was something odd in his gaze as he looked at Naruto. "Hey, hey," Naruto said, "What's your name, anyway?" The man really freaked him out. Maybe he could distract him and run.

"Morino Ibiki," Morino said. "Care to answer my first question?"

"Not really," Naruto said, slowly, hesitantly. Morino bristled slightly.

"Why were you-" he began, but was interrupted.

"Left the stove on, got to run!" Naruto shouted and sprinted away. Morino was left behind, looking as though he wanted to strangle someone, but couldn't really be bothered to drop his dignity to run after some bratty eleven year old – some bratty eleven year old with two completely contrasting speech patterns.

Red was snickering all the way home. Naruto thought he was getting another headache.

------------

It was with some horror that Naruto discovered, upon waking up the next day, that all his orange jumpsuits had been burnt. The voices in his head were noticeably silent, and Naruto spent quite a few hours sulking.

Then he got a visitor.

That was when he stopped sulking and felt like crying instead.

------------

_END CHAPTER ONE_

------------

_If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll try to reply. Wooh. -waves flag-_


	3. Chapter 2

_**Summary:** Creating a jutsu is dangerous. Too bad an eleven-year-old Naruto didn't know that. AU, Naruto with MPD._

_**Warning:** Some bad language. _

_**Disclaimer**: Not mine, apart from the parts that are._

_**A/N: **Wooh, new edited Chapter Two. I'd advise any of the old readers to go over this, because the characters and events have changed. Thanks to martinique, who betaed. I'm really sorry this took so long to put up; I have no excuse. (Well, actually I have plenty of excuses, but none that would really be acceptable.) I've taken down the rest of the unedited chapters, because there's been some confusion over those. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long to put up._

_------------_**  
**

**Chapter Two**

------------**  
**

**'I'm tellin' ya,' **Red said, clearly exasperated. **'I knew what I was doin' with the jounin. Stop fussin', yeah? You're like a bunch of old women.'**

**'You annoyed a clearly dangerous jounin, because you thought it was a good idea,' **Legacy said. **'I hardly think-'**

"Will you lot just be quiet?" Naruto whined, nursing a mug of hot chocolate as he sat slouched at his kitchen table. "You're giving me a headache, and I _still_ don't understand what you're saying about chakra."

**'Was I ever that stupid?' **Red wondered, and Naru made a noise of outrage.

**'Red! Don't be nasty. Just because Naruto knows less than us, doesn't mean he's stupid,' **Naru said, and Naruto sighed.

**'That's an interesting thought,' **Grey mused, his voice taking on a note of interest as he expounded on a theory. **'Theoretically, we should not be able to know more than Naruto, as we're created from possible memories in his mind. Our memories are formed around people he knows, and possible ways they could have acted, but if you consider it, we know no more about them than he does – this should apply to our knowledge as well, shouldn't it?'**

**'He could subconsciously know it,' **Red said. **'A lot of people know more'n they think they do, yeah?'**

Naruto moaned, dropping his head into his hands. Having been forced to wake at an unholy hour by Grey, who seemed convinced five-thirty in the morning was a perfectly practical time to get up, he was then deprived of his ramen by Naru (concerned over him stunting his own growth, so why didn't he have some fruit and a piece of toast instead?) and if that wasn't enough, then made to study, his headache was only growing as the others argued. Naruto failed to see the point of being forced to read over admittedly lack-luster results, as he had five other people in his head who were capable of giving him the answers – actually, scratch that, _four. _Shi didn't seem much the academic type, preferring to just cause unhealthy amounts of damage to whatever was bothering him, in the hopes that it would either die or go away – but either way, it seemed entirely stupid to waste his time studying when he could be doing something more worthwhile. Like sleeping. And eating ramen.

"Can we have a break?" he asked miserably, and there was a pause. He continued, hopefully. "It's ten o'clock. We've been studying way too long."

**'You shouldn't ever give up,' **Legacy said. **'Giving up is a weakness.'**

**'Screw you, yeah?' **Red said. **'Can't you feel that we're hungry?'**

As if on cue, Naruto's stomach rumbled, and he pouted, before realising they couldn't see him. That put a bit of a damper on conversations – especially Naruto's, which tended towards expansive gestures and making faces. Legacy grumbled a bit, but was shot down by Grey (**'A distracted ninja learns badly,' **he said, back to his usual monotone) and Naruto stumbled over to his cupboards, making it to the ramen before anyone could seriously complain.

Setting it to cook, he bounced from foot to foot excitedly, ignoring Red's mumbles of how he really hated ramen. No one could hate ramen. It was physically impossible. Red was just misguided, and should be taught the error of his ways. Checking his clock, he counted down the seconds impatiently- and then someone knocked on the door firmly.

'_What the-?' _Naruto thought. The only time people visited him was to make sure he was alive, and those visits only happened every four months. It was too soon for one of those checks.

**'Why don't you go and see who's there, instead of wondering?'** Naru prompted and Shi snorted.

**'Might be danger,' **he said, wariness coating his voice. **'Don't trust it.'**

**'I hardly think they'd knock if they were here to kill us,' **Legacy said condescendingly, and there were a variety of mental shrugs. With a sigh, Naruto went to answer the door, stumbling over a mess of papers that he'd knocked over the day before and hadn't bothered to clear up.

Unlocking his door, and mumbling swearwords as the key got stuck in the lock, he finally tugged the door open. And stopped. And stared.

'_Red, this is all your fault,' _he whined, his expression clearly giving him away from the flicker of amusement that passed over Morino's face.

**'Stop whinin' and find out why he's here,' **Red sneered back, and Legacy began grumbling at him for his tone of voice, Naru nodding somewhere in the background.

_'Can't I just shut the door and pretend he was never here?' _Naruto asked, and there was some consideration over this.

**'He's a jounin,' **Grey said blandly after a few moments. **'A lock won't stop him.'**

**'Explosive tags might,'** Shi grunted, and Naruto blinked. He went over what they said, and carefully translated it as a 'no, you can't shut the door in his face.'

"Uzumaki Naruto," Morino said, fixing dark eyes on him. Naruto cocked his head, and then tried to imitate the man's ponderous way of talking.

"Morino Ibiki," he said widening his eyes and trying to keep his face straight. Legacy was groaning in the back of his mind, but Red seemed more amused than anything.

Morino narrowed his head, but kept his composure. "May I come in?" he asked, but something in his voice hinted that it was more an order than a request. Naruto considered this, and then his mind flickered back to a story he'd been told once, and he managed to keep a smug smile off his face.

"Are you a vampire? 'Cause I heard you shouldn't ever invite a vampire in," he said, in the most innocent tone he could, taking great delight in the clear irritation in Morino's stance. Oh yeah, he was the Number One ninja at annoying people.

"Vampires don't exist, Uzumaki," Morino said, and Naruto blinked.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, and Red encouraged him as he continued. "I mean, just because you've never seen one doesn't mean they don't exist. It could just be-"

"Uzumaki," Morino interrupted, and Naruto froze as a wave of _something_ hit him, freezing him in place as his breath came in short, sharp gasps. He felt fear hit him, and his face paled as he stared at the scarred jounin, who suddenly seemed much more intimidating, looming over him.

'**Killing intent,' **Legacy squeaked out, clearly affected.

**'Runnin' away would be a good idea, yeah?' **Red managed to say, stumbling over the words. **'I'm thinkin', really, really good idea.'**

**'Kill him,' **Shi snarled out, less affected than the other two, but Naruto could feel the fear and anger that swirled around him in waves of red. **'Danger. Stop.' **His speech patterns were becoming more and more simplified as the killing intent spiked. Naruto could feel himself shivering uncontrollably.

Grey sighed, unamused by their reactions as Naru whimpered somewhere in the background. **'I will take over,'** he offered, somehow completely unaffected by the fear that was wrapping around them. Naruto ceded control gratefully, retreating within them to the soulroom, where Naru latched onto him. Red was leaning back against a wall, his face pale and fists clenched, as they heard Grey's voice echoing around them.

"Your tricks are unnecessary, Morino-san," he said, and Morino was clearly surprised at the bland, steady tone the boy took – the same boy that had been _trembling_ before.

"Twelve seconds," Morino said. "I'm impressed – perhaps you aren't quite the fool you seemed." He halted whatever he was doing, and there were audible sighs of relief inside the soul room, Naruto letting his tensed shoulders relax, unable to be overly bothered by Morino's comment as the shivers slowly halted.

"Twelve seconds?" Grey asked, with only the slightest inflection at the end of the sentence to show it was a question. Morino seemed bothered by something, his mouth twisting into some grotesque expression, as the scars pulled it up and across.

**'He's tryin' to smile,' **Red breathed in some horror. **'Remind me to leg it before anything like that could happen to me, yeah?'**

**'Coward,' **Legacy sneered, trying to regain some pride, but by the filthy look Red shot him, it wasn't working very well.

"It took you twelve seconds to break the influence of the killing intent," Morino explained. "Now, may I come in?"

Grey raised an eyebrow, before stepping aside, allowing Morino to enter. There was a sort of blank wariness in Grey's expression as he closed the door again, but made sure he didn't lock it. **'Here,' **he said, and Naruto jolted as he slid back into control, the switch somehow rougher between him and Grey than he remembered it being with Red. He eyed Morino's back uncertainly as the man made his way into the kitchen, stepping over the mess of papers on the floor without hesitation. Naruto briefly wondered what the man was thinking, and stopped by the table.

"So..." he said slowly. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No," Morino replied, his eyes boring into Naruto's own, and Naruto shifted slightly.

"Uh... Okay," he muttered. "What did you want then?"

"Want?" Morino asked, and Naruto frowned.

"Yeah, y'know. If you turned up on my doorstep, you probably wanted something, right?"

"Yesterday you seemed convinced I was a stalker," Morino shot back, and Naruto felt like slamming his head against a table. He hated word games.

"I changed my mind," he nearly whined. "I'm _so _not in the mood for this."

"Hm," Morino murmured. "As you will." He fumbled inside his coat for a second, and it was Red's paranoia that forced them to watch the hand as if it were going to bring out an explosive tag or something. "I want you-"

**'Paedophile,' **Red said under his breath, and Naruto choked.

"-To sign this," Morino said, pulling out a piece of paper, a gleam in his eye that told Naruto that the man definitely suspected the thought that had just run through his – or Red's, to be more precise – mind.

"What is it?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"A piece of paper."

(**'No shit,' **Red grumbled.)

Naruto, for once, decided to shut his mouth and focus on deciphering the flowing, complicated letters. His reading had never been as good as it should have been, and it was slow going – especially when Naruto didn't understand what half the words meant.

'In lieu of guardian,' it read, 'I, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha do allow one _Morino Ibiki_, of special jounin status, specialising in Intelligence, to submit his application for the apprenticeship of one _Uzumaki Naruto_. Should the chosen apprentice chose to accept this application, they are answerable to their aforementioned teacher for the duration of time that the teacher chooses to hold them for, and are awarded the status of _temporary chuunin_, when directly under the command of their teacher.'

Morino was poking through the papers still left on Naruto's kitchen table as Naruto attempted to work out the meaning of the statement. Picking one piece of paper up, his eyes flickered over it – and froze halfway, starting again more slowly. "I don't recognise this jutsu," he said, and Naruto didn't really catch what he was saying before he answered.

"Nah, you wouldn't," he said, absentmindedly. "Hey, hey, Morino-san, does this mean if I accept your offer I'd get promoted straight to chuunin?"

"No," Morino said. "It means that you'd still be an academy student, but when I'm with you, you'd be allowed to access places that you wouldn't normally be allowed to until you gained chuunin. What do you mean by, 'no, I wouldn't recognise this jutsu'?"

Naruto looked up from the statement properly then, to see just what Morino was raising purposely. He paled. That was the jutsu he'd been working on – the one that had resulted in the others coming out. "Um," he said intelligently. "That's... um..."

They stared at each other for a long moment, and then Morino sighed. "The correct way to distract my attention from that would be something along the lines of 'just a jutsu I found in the library', and then follow it up with a question to change the subject. You need practice at that." He looked down at the jutsu, and then raised an eyebrow. "What is this, exactly?"

Naruto considered what he should say for a second, before grinning. "That's just a jutsu I found in the library," he parroted. "What does an apprenticeship mean?"

Morino twitched slightly in exasperation. "That wasn't an invitation for you to try that out on me," he said, obviously irritated. "Never mind." He made as if to put the jutsu down, sliding it up his sleeve in a near imperceptible movement, and Naruto watched in faint disbelief.

_'He just stole it!' _Naruto thought, outraged.

**'Do you want to be the one to object?' **Legacy asked, his voice surprisingly dry for him, and Naruto considered this, remembering the fear that had washed over him.

_'...No,' _he said finally. _'But this sucks.'_

"Now, an apprenticeship." Morino looked thoughtful. "Basically, I'd give you extra training on top of your academy class, and you would obey me as you would a personal teacher. You get access to some of my work in Intelligence, and I can have you run errands, where I'd normally have to find a chuunin."

**'Wicked,' **Red breathed. **'Sign it, yeah? We don't want him to back out.'**

**'What happened to you wanting to run away?' **Legacy asked, and Red could clearly be felt rolling his eyes.

**'If he's teachin' us, I don't care how scary he is,' **Red said plainly, and Naruto sighed, searching around for a pen. Morino watched his actions with an almost predatory look on his face, and Shi seemed particularly unenthusiastic, a low growl coming from him whenever Naruto's eyes flickered over the man.

(**'Shi's sulkin',' **Red explained blandly. **'He ain't the big bad with Morino around.'**

**'Red!' **Naru protested, and Red snickered slightly.)

Naruto scrawled his name out almost incomprehensibly, and Morino grinned; an action that made Naruto decidedly nervous. Snagging the scroll out of Naruto's hands, Morino flicked his eyes over it. "Good," he grunted. "Follow me."

"What for?" Naruto asked, and Morino spared him one irritated look.

"I need to test your abilities, and the easiest way to do that is an exercise I had my... acquaintances set up."

**'This doesn't sound good,' **Grey observed neutrally, and there was a sort of sick silence in Naruto's head.

----------

"Ibiki!" someone shouted cheerfully, and Naruto flinched slightly under Morino's hand. He'd been getting increasingly more nervous as he was marched over to training areas he _knew_ academy students were banned from, due to the fact that there were traps set up there that could kill them far too easily. Of course, he was going to pass any test Morino set up, because he was Uzumaki Naruto and just that amazing, but that didn't change the fact that they were talking 'step in the wrong place and go 'boom''.

"Genma," Morino greeted blandly. "I don't remember asking you to set up the exercise."

The man – Genma – looked a bit odd, Naruto reckoned. Kinda cool, but seriously, who stuck a weapon in their mouth? Genma grinned, somehow managing to keep the senbon in his mouth, and he glanced over Naruto, looking entirely too gleeful.

"Kenji and Daisuke got called out on a mission. They asked me to take over," he said. "Don't worry, it's all set up properly."

"Hm," Morino said, his eyes narrowed, and then turned to Naruto. "See that rock in the middle?" he asked, and Naruto nodded slowly. "Good. You have to put your hand on the panel installed on it."

Naruto blinked. "What's the catch?"

"It's a genjutsu simulation," Genma said, before Morino could speak up. (Naruto was particularly glad of this, considering that Morino looked as if he were going to say something along the lines of 'why don't you find out?' and shove him at it). "Basically, you're put into a mindscape where I've set up a bunch of tests. We don't see what you do, but we can check your scores and compare them to other people's."

"Can I get hurt?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

"Nah," Genma shrugged off. "You can get phantom pain, but you aren't going to do damage to your body. It's all in the mind." He waved his hands around, as if to suggest some kind of mystical powers, and Naruto stared at him.

"...Okay," he said. _'This should be no problem, right guys?'_

**'No problem at all!' **Naru echoed, sounding more enthusiastic than he had previously.

**'Don't take it lightly,' **Grey warned, but Naruto was already moving forward, squatting down in front of the rock and looking at the silvery grey panel embedded in the stone. He shoved his hand forward without hesitation, feeling the cool metal under his hand. He was going to ace this, he thought, before his vision swirled and jerked, pulling him forward.

"Ow," Naruto moaned, pushing himself to his feet as he looked around – a forest in front of him, with a clear sign pointing in.

"That looks slightly ominous," Legacy said mildly, and Naruto twisted, his eyes widening as he saw the other five in varying states of disarray, pushing themselves to their feet. They were all wearing the same clothes as him, he noted almost absentmindedly – the same dark grey shorts and green shirt, making them looked muted and older than they were. Shi in particular looked like he was far too old for his body, red eyes half pulsing with animalistic emotion.

"How-?" Naruto began to ask, and Grey answered, standing straight in what seemed to be an ideal guard pose, as if expecting an attack.

"This is within your mind," he said. "We are within your mind. Therefore, it stands to reason that we are released when you undertake training like this."

"I get that," Naruto said, in a voice clearly implying that he didn't.

"I think we have to enter the forest," Naru said quietly, sounding nervous. "I checked ahead – I can't sense any life."

"You didn't move," Naruto said, looking confused, and Naru smiled.

"It's a technique Iruka-sensei mentioned a couple of years back. You extend your chakra in waves, and see what bounces back. Chakra reflects chakra, after all," he explained, and Naruto shrugged.

"Who wants to go first?" he asked, and everyone looked at each other.

"I volunteer Legacy," Red said, speaking up for the first time, and Legacy looked somewhere between flattered and outraged.

"Acknowledging that I'm better than you?" he asked, and Red raised an eyebrow.

"No. More like I'm hopin' you'll get taken out first, yeah?"

Legacy narrowed his eyes in outrage, but moved forward anyway, and Red flashed a grin Naruto's way. Without really thinking, Naruto fell into pace beside Grey, Shi and Red at their backs and Naru sort of flitting from the front to the back, his eyes half-closed. This... fit in a way, Naruto found with a grin. 'Course, he should be leading, but that could come soon enough.

They kept on moving, and, strangely enough, it was Naruto who noticed it first, as they followed the path through the eerie forest. "We've passed that tree," he said, pointing at one particularly gnarled tree, its branches twisting around itself.

"Really?" Red asked.

"Yeah. This is the third time," Naruto said, and there was a sort of embarrassed silence.

"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genjutsu expert, Red?" Legacy said, a note of taunting in his voice. Red blushed slightly, sticking his tongue out.

"Trees all look the same to me," he muttered.

"How do we disrupt it?" Grey asked, and Red looked at him.

"I'm thinkin', yeah?" Red said, his tone clearly conveying the unspoken 'shut up, moron'. "We have to do somethin' that they ain't expectin', and ain't prepared for."

"Earthquake?" Legacy suggested, and Red shook his head.

"I'm bettin' that they've prepared the place for all kinds of offensive jutsus," Red said. "Anythin' typical, anyway."

Naruto sat down on the ground, cross-legged and frowning as the others began to argue. He'd pulled this prank back when he was nine; this huge explosion that Sandaime had forbidden him from ever recreating again, but that wouldn't work right now. Something they weren't expecting...

Naruto pulled a kunai out hesitantly, hearing Legacy trying to shout Red down in irritation, while Naru tried to draw their attention to what Naruto was doing. _What they weren't expecting, _he thought to himself, and then rammed the kunai straight through his palm.

The forest dissolved as he pulled the kunai out, the wound disappearing as if it had never been there, leaving behind only a faint ache. A new landscape began to form, misty opponents up in front of him as the others appeared one by one behind him, Shi sounding particularly unhappy.

"What now?" Naruto asked, and he felt Naru extend his chakra.

"I guess those are our opponents," Naru said uncertainly. "But..." his voice cut off as mist began to roil over them, blocking out their vision completely.

Naruto felt someone press against his back, and leant backwards slightly, glad for the warm reassurance, however ineffective they probably were against an opponent they couldn't see. "Alright?" Legacy breathed softly, and Naruto swallowed.

"Yeah. The others-?" he stopped as he heard the sound of fists meeting flesh, and ragged breathing off to his right. _'Focus on yourself,' _he told himself, closing his eyes and straining for noise. A footstep, to the left-

Naruto lunged forwards blindly, a kunai in one hand as he swung it around. It made impact, but barely from the noise of surprise his opponent made, but that didn't matter because Legacy was there, following it up with what sounded to be a vicious punch-

"He- dissolved," Legacy said, his voice confused. "What the-?"

"Mizu bunshin," Grey said, somewhere from behind them. "Naru says there are another three somewhere, and I don't know where Red is."

Naruto let his breathing calm, seeking out for his next opponent. His nose twitched slightly, and behind him he heard Shi snarl as he made contact with another one, Naru crying out somewhere, he didn't know where. Legacy let out a gasp of breath, sounding like someone had hit him beside Naruto, and he could _feel _the impact of air discharged as he moved forward with his kunai, slamming out into what felt like a stomach, the tension of flesh collapsing into water-

The mist slowly faded, and Naruto looked around, breathing in and out slowly and carefully. Shi over there, looking particularly annoyed as he tried to find another enemy, Naru, pale and shaky but still determined over there – and Red, standing around twenty metres away with his arms folded and looking particularly unruffled.

"Did you do anything there?" Legacy demanded, as the surroundings began to disappear once more, and Red smirked.

"You didn't need my help," he drawled out, and Naruto scowled at the nonchalance in his voice.

In front of them, a black box of some sort was forming, numbers on top of it reading 2:00, and Naruto forgot about his annoyance as he stepped closer to it – weird, the numbers had changed to 1:59, 1:58. "Hey, guys," he called, interrupting Legacy as he lectured Red. "I think this thing is counting down to something."

Grey moved beside him, and blinked. "That's a bomb," he said in a neutral tone of voice.

A bomb? Naruto had heard about them, but he hadn't ever seen one. "This explodes, right?" he asked.

"...Yes," Grey said.

"How do we stop it from exploding?"

Grey seemed almost abashed as he replied, staring at his feet. "I don't know," he said. "We cut a wire, but I don't know which one."

"I can't see any wires," Naru said, his brow furrowing in confusion and there was a pause.

1:23 glowed up at them. "How far can we run in one minute and..." Red paused, and checked the number again. "Eighteen seconds?"

------------

Not far enough, it turned out. The mindscape had erupted in a flash of yellow-orange-white, and for a second it had felt like his body was evaporating, before Naruto collapsed on the ground beside the rock, panting with his eyes wide and face pale.

The two men watching him exchanged mutters - "Too easy," Morino seemed to be grumbling as he performed some jutsu over the metal panel, and, "Set it at mid-genin," Genma was protesting – as Naruto closed his eyes. _'You lot alright?' _he asked, and there was a variety of affirmatives.

"Poor," Morino told him, as Naruto stumbled to his feet. Genma seemed torn between agreeing and disagreeing with Morino as he left, and Naruto tried not to feel hurt at Morino's curt words. "You took too long to identify the genjutsu, used nothing save basic taijutsu and you didn't even attempt to disarm the bomb."

"I've never learnt how to!" Naruto protested, and Morino raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll expect an essay about bombs and how to disarm them tomorrow, seven AM, then. At least one thousand words."

_'What!' _Naruto screeched, and the others seemed to be in agreement from the feelings rippling off them.

Morino frowned suddenly, looking down at him. "You've hurt your arm," he said, reaching out to grasp Naruto's right arm. Naruto looked confused.

"No I haven't," he said, and Morino's grip tightened.

"Oh?" he said mildly. "My mistake." He twisted viciously, and Naruto screamed as his shoulder popped out of its joint. Morino paused, and looked down at him. "You should probably not use that arm for a couple of days. I still expect the essay tomorrow. I'll come to your apartment."

"How can I write an essay like this, you bastard?" Naruto wailed, unable to contain his foul mouth as he clutched his right arm.

Morino smirked. "Learn to write left-handed," he said, walking off, seemingly without concern.

'_What was that about?_' Naruto cried internally, and there was a sort of mumbled argument between the others inside his head.

**'I think he really wanted us to learn to use our left hand,' **Grey said at last, and Naruto felt like sobbing.

'_Could it get any worse?_' he wondered to the others.

**'Uh oh,' **Naru said suddenly, and Naruto whimpered.

_'What now?' _he asked, and Naru seemed to be thinking how to phrase what he wanted to say.

**'I think we left the stove on,' **he said slowly, and Naruto's eyes widened.

_'Shit!'_


	4. Chapter 3

_**Summary:** Creating a jutsu is dangerous. Too bad an eleven-year-old Naruto didn't know that. AU, Naruto with MPD._

_**Warning:** Some bad language. _

_**Disclaimer**: Not mine, apart from the parts that are. _

_**A/N: **The joy of a new chapter. -sheepish grin- Thanks to martinique (again) for beta-reading, and just being cool, generally - and to everyone who reviewed. I really do appreciate every review left. To reassure readers; there will be no bashing if I can help it - and I'll try to insert Shino in somewhere. Also, to any writers out there who're interested in a challenge, I'd like to direct you to the 'Unusual Adoption' Challenge (http:// nest. avidgamers. com - without the spaces). It'd be really interesting to see a couple of people try it out._

_------------_

**Chapter Three**

___------------_

_'When do you think Ibiki-sensei's going to notice we stole his book?' _Naruto yawned, his left hand scrawling away as he turned the page of the book he was taking notes from. After ten months, four dislocations and seventeen breaks in his right arm (which took surprisingly little time to heal; recently, they'd been fixing themselves overnight, much to Naruto's bewilderment. He was pretty sure broken arms weren't suppose to do that) he'd found himself adapting to writing left-handed, and, much to Iruka-sensei's shock, he probably had neater writing with his left. Of course, when around other people he used his right hand as much as possible – _a strength is only so when other people are not aware of it, brat_ – but Iruka had managed to find out, using his super-secret sensei skills.

**'I'm bettin' he noticed when we took it,' **Red said lazily, giving the impression that if he could, he would be shifting to slump against a wall. **'You can't say he ain't observant, after all.'**

It was probably true, but Naruto liked to believe that he had successfully got one over his eagle-eyed sensei. It made him feel proud of himself; something that was rare when he remembered his academy class and the fact that he was still near the bottom despite having extra tutoring and five voices in his head - he just couldn't do exams, and half the time for practicals he was messed up from Ibiki-sensei's latest training routine. Red and Grey refused to help him most of the time as well; Red, because he wouldn't do anything unless he got something in return, and Grey, **'just in case you're stuck without one of us to help you**'. Like that was ever going to happen.

He turned another page, running his eyes down the printed text – this was something no one was technically supposed to get their hands on before they were chuunin rank and recruited into Intelligence. Ibiki-sensei had a tendency to treat Naruto's choice of department as a foregone conclusion, but Naruto wasn't entirely sure. They were all a bunch of psychos in Intelligence, and Ibiki wasn't even the worst among them. The book was Konoha's intell. book; a gathering of data on a variety of customs in different countries in case anyone had to fake where they came from and information on all of the Hidden Villages, how they got promoted and all that stuff, and comparing it to Konoha. Normally, Naruto would have avoided this like the plague; it was low on jutsus (the only one he'd seen written down was the Hidden Mist's mist technique, and he was pretty bad with water techniques anyway, so that sucked) and high on dull text.

It was, however, exactly what he needed to complete his essay for the academy and get a really high mark – Iruka-sensei always gave extra points if people managed to work in detail from outside the academy textbooks, and Naruto was determined to get the highest mark in the class this time. Red had bet him stamina training that he couldn't beat Sakura.

That was something Naruto quite enjoyed about sharing his body. Any training anyone put in contributed to their strength as a whole, and so there were various arguments on who had to be in control as Ibiki-sensei made them run insane numbers of laps around the village. It was Red's turn all of next week, but Red had offered to do both his week and Naruto's if Naruto won the bet, and that was something Naruto just couldn't pass up on, even if it meant he had to put actual effort into his academic work.

'**You ain't goin' to win,' **Red drawled. **'There ain't much to be said for the girl, but she does have a brain hidden behind that forehead, which is more'n can be said for you.'**

_'Hey!'_ Naruto objected, waiting for Naru to act as a peacemaker almost automatically, but Naru was not forthcoming. There was a silence.

'**He's asleep,' **Legacy said finally, and Naruto shrugged. That was another weird thing he'd found out about – they could all sleep at different times; Grey said it had something to do with the activity being in different parts of the brain, meaning they could shut parts down at will without adversely affecting the other personalities… or something to that effect. Grey had the problem that his voice was so monotonous that it had a tendency to make the others fall asleep when he went into long explanations. They still needed a couple of hours sleep a night, so the muscles in the body could rest, but they could stay awake for longer than they would otherwise, just switching control of the body.

'**We done?' **Shi grumbled, and Naruto stuck his tongue out at thin air, knowing the others would get the point of the gesture. Shi wouldn't care of course; he rarely cared about anything that didn't have to do with fighting or surviving. He was a bit… animalistic in a way – vicious as anything, but wild and unrestrained when he fought. He'd tried to kill Ibiki-sensei once or twice, hating that the man could make him afraid. Ibiki-sensei had just broken both of Naruto's arms.

That hadn't been a good day.

_'No,'_ Naruto replied. _'I just have to get in the part about the Hidden Grass's genin graduation.'_

'**Naruto,' **Grey said blandly. **'This essay is on the uses of chakra control.'**

_'It's sort of connected,'_ Naruto defended._ 'I mean, the intell. book says that the Hidden Grass produces some of the best medic-nin, and their genin are supposed to show their mastery of one medical jutsu and that's… kind of connected to chakra control.'_

Red made a sort of satisfied humming sound in the back of their mind, and altered the dimensions of the soul room briefly – Naruto saw a flash of double vision for a second, seeing Red twisting a shougi board out of the blank air and then wave it about. "We goin' to have another game, Legacy? The score was 3-1 to me, yeah?"

Legacy grumbled something under his breath, and then Naruto's vision swam back and he was staring down at the essay again. Whenever one of the group chose to alter the soul room dimensions, it felt really weird. Like his vision was doubling in on itself and he was being split in two.

Naru said he'd felt the same thing when he was in control and one of the others wanted a game of something, so it obviously wasn't that big a problem. It was just odd. Had soemthing to do with the creating of matter, which wouldn't normally be a problem as it was imaginary or something, but then the person who'd created the thing had to co-ordinate it with the other five minds so it could exist in their vision as well... and that was about all Naruto had caught from Grey's explanation.

He finished his essay with a flourish as he tore his mind away from debating the soul room (and he inserted in the part about Grass's graduation, whatever Grey said; he didn't care if it wasn't entirely relevant, it was showing he knew more than everyone else, and that was always good, right?)

_'Ibiki-sensei's on a mission today, right?'_ Naruto asked, and there was a consultation between the personalities who were awake.

**'Think he's torturin' someone over in HQ,' **Red said, slowly, thoughtfully. **'He seemed too happy for anythin' else, yeah?'**

That was probably true – and as a bonus, it meant Naruto had the entire Saturday free. Normally, on weekdays, he turned up at a training field at five, had two and a half hours of training, then went to the academy and afterwards came back to do more training. On weekends, Ibiki just made him train solid – Naruto was vaguely curious why the man seemed to have so little work to do and so much time to dedicate to inflicting pain on a poor and innocent young boy, but decided against mentioning it.

_'Is there anything I need to do?'_ he asked, and Legacy replied.

**'Buy food,' **he said thoughtfully. **'Then training. Naru wanted to work on that sight borrowing jutsu Ibiki-sensei showed us last week.'**

**'An' I want to work on that genjutsu,' **Red said quickly. **'The camouflage one.' ** Red maintained that they never did enough work on genjutsu, which was probably true – as a whole, they seemed to fail miserably with illusions and even Red, who prided himself on trickery, wasn't that good at it. He tended to rely on kawarimi and ninja tactics such as 'diving into nearby bushes before running away very quickly'.

_'Alright. I wanted to buy some more ramen anyway,'_ he said, and Red twitched.

**'I fuckin' hate ramen,' **he grumbled, and Legacy snickered.

**'Individuals must always suffer for the good of the whole,' **he said purposely in his most pompous tone of voice, and Red growled at him.

**'Trying to become Shi now?' **Legacy mocked. Naruto grinned as he listened to the developing argument, searching through the precarious piles of paper covering his kitchen table - he knew his wallet was buried here somewhere. Finally catching sight of a flash of orange, he dived on it overdramatically, sliding across the table through snowdrifts of paper and then collapsing over the other side.

_'Ow,'_ he whined, and Red paused in his arguing to laugh at him. Naruto barely managed not to preen at the attention, instead letting only a smug smile rest on his face.

Shoving the quite average-looking wallet (his Gama wallet had been burnt quite a while ago; Naruto was very sure that at least one of his personalities had pyromaniac tendencies) into his pocket, he sauntered out of the door, half-ignoring the others as Naru woke up and try to stop the ongoing shouting match.

'**Will you both please be quiet!' **Naru begged, and Naruto found his smug smile fading into a more natural grin.

------------

_'Hey, hey,'_ Naruto said as they wandered the bookshop, henge firmly in place and paper bags containing his food for the week dangling by his side. He originally came into the shop looking for something which would contain some awesomely powerful jutsus that he could easily learn and use to show his innate amazingness, but now... _'You know that orange book that Genma's always reading?'_ He nodded discreetly to where the books were piled, and there was a thoughtful silence.

**'Go fer it,' **Red said at last, and Naruto sidled over to the books, picking one up with all the casualness of a born actor who had Ibiki trying to hammer stealth into his head (and failing, nine times out of ten). He flicked a page open, ignoring the **WARNING: 18+ ONLY **written on the cover, and began to read the text.

He choked about half a page in, when the 'busty heroine' was described in great depth – bra size and all. Turning another page introduced a 'busty villainess', and then on the third page, the two somehow got 'caught up in the passion of the moment, ripping each others' clothes off in desperation as they ached for that fire that came only from the touch of each other...'

Naruto put the book down, feeling like his ears were going to burst into flame any time soon. He'd never realised Genma was such a... pervert. That was mildly disturbing. He glanced down at it again, feeling the slightly stunned thoughts of his personalities (Naru was humming very loudly, and Naruto got the impression that he was curled up in a very tight ball, rocking back and forth with his hands over his ears). A grin twitched at the corner of his mouth as he shifted his grocery bags subtly.

_'Sooo...'_ he said in a mock casual voice, quickly getting over his embarrassment for the chance to taunt the others. _'Reckon we should buy one?'_

**Naruto!' **Legacy spluttered, clearly mortified. **'How could you-?'**

**'I dunno,' **Red said, a sly tone entering into his voice. **'D'you reckon there's one with guys only?'**

Legacy's protests increased in volume, and Naruto tried very hard to stop himself from snickering. _'We could always ask,' _he suggested, and Red 'hmm'ed thoughtfully.

**'It would be a good learning experience, don't you think?' **Grey said suddenly, and there was a feeling of shock from everyone. Grey – joining in on a joke? **'After all, if we ever get sent on an infiltration mission, we might need to know about gay sex...'**

**'You- I-' **Legacy started, and Naru continued to hum loudly, changing occasionally to **'I can't heaaaar you, can't hear anything, no, nothing at all-'**

**'What's wrong with sex?' **Shi asked, and his voice had more of a growl in it than usual.

'**Yeah,' **Red snickered. **'You asexual or somethin', Legacy?'**

**'No! I'm just not a pervert!' **Legacy shouted and Naruto did laugh at that, ignoring the curious looks he got from the other shoppers in the book shop.

_'Relax,'_ he snickered._ 'We're going. No need to panic about us buying gay porn.'_

**'I hate you all,' **Legacy said with great dignity, settling down to sulk. Still stifling chuckles, Naruto walked out of the door, turning left and bumping into a solid chest.

So much for ninja reflexes, he thought grumpily as he pushed himself up from the floor. He glance up to see Ibiki standing there, disapproval nearly radiating from him, and flinched.

"I thought you said there was no training today, sensei," Naruto said, hoping he didn't look guilty as he smiled weakly – because he could have sworn there wasn't any, really.

Ibiki looked at him, and his face could have been carved from granite; Naruto stopped smiling abruptly. He could hear Shi growl low within him, but instead forced a grin back onto his face, hoping he didn't look too terrified. Six months, and Ibiki-sensei could still freeze him with killing intent – what had he done wrong now?

"I lied," Ibiki said at last. "That girl – Tinten-"

"Tenten," Naruto corrected, without really thinking about it. Ibiki snorted softly and amended what he said.

"-Tenten isn't around, is she?"

Naruto hoped he didn't look as confused as he felt – it didn't help that Naru was questioning Legacy on what exactly Ibiki-sensei meant by asking about Tenten. She'd turned up to watch a couple of their training sessions from time to time (or more precisely, she'd stumbled across them while Ibiki had been showing Naruto the effectiveness of senbon by throwing them at him and had decided to tag along) but Ibiki-sensei didn't seem to much like her, for all that the girl seemed to hero-worship him and his training techniques.

...Naruto could feel his muscles aching at the very thought of Ibiki-sensei's training. Tenten had to be insane, he decided.

**'She had training with her genin team,' **Grey informed him, and Naruto dutifully relayed the information to Ibiki, who's face still showed little emotion.

"Good," he said at last, gesturing for Naruto to follow him away from where others might hear. Naruto sighed, looking down at his groceries regretfully, and hauled them along.

------------

"I told you I had work today," Ibiki said slowly, and Naruto nodded, eying him warily. Ibiki-sensei wasn't going to use this as an excuse to try out more 'training sessions' was he? Ibiki smirked, apparently approving of the way that Naruto was standing, ready to bolt for one of the escape routes from the clearing at any sign of violence from him.

"I did – there was a traitor in the chuunin. Remember how I asked you to keep an eye on Mizuki?"

Naruto nodded again, then blinked as he put things together.

**'Mizuki-sensei was a traitor?' **Legacy asked in a horrified voice, and even Red seemed disgusted at that.

**'Knew there was somethin' wrong with that bastard...' **he muttered, and Naruto shook his head slightly to return his attention back to Ibiki.

"It turns out that he replaced the Forbidden Scroll in the Hokage Tower with a fake about a week ago, and was planning to abandon the village with it in his possession. He says that it's in the clearing where there's a shed – do you know where it is?" He seemed to need some verbal assurance, so Naruto confirmed it, wondering what the man was getting at. He didn't give away any more information than he had to, after all.

"I can't go and get the scroll, because it would draw attention to the fact that it's been stolen. So I need you to get it – and I need it back here by... say, two hours at the latest?" Ibiki said, his eyes boring intently into Naruto's own, as if trying to convey some deeply secret message that flew straight over Naruto's head.

**'Is he sayin' what I think he's sayin'?' **Red questioned, thankfully not quite as slow on the uptake as Naruto, excitement clear in his voice.

_'What do you think he's saying?'_ Naruto said, wondering what he'd missed.

**'I think he's sayin' that we can learn some kinjutsu,' **Red said, and there was a clear grin in his voice.

**'Aren't you jumping to conclusions?' **Legacy asked, and Red snorted.

**'Nah, nah, think about it. It's only goin' to take us twenty minutes max to find this scroll, and maybe ten to get back, an' Morino knows it. That leaves us an hour an' a half, yeah?' **Red said.

**'Congratulations,' **Grey said blandly. **'You can do basic maths.'**

**'Don't be a prick,' **Red snapped at him. **'That's Legacy's job.' **

**'The jutsus in that scroll are forbidden though,' **Naru said uncertainly. **'Are you sure that's what Ibiki-sensei meant?'**

_'Who cares?_' Naruto said, finally getting a grasp on the idea Red was advocating. _'If it gives us a chance to learn some more jutsus...'_

**'That's immoral,' **Naru said, a pout obvious in his voice. **'Can we at least make sure they're decent?'**

They grinned in unison, and Naruto looked up at Ibiki. "Got what you're saying, sensei," he said cheerfully. "Will I need to make sure no one else sees it?"

There was a satisfied look in Ibiki's eyes as he nodded, waving Naruto away with the flick of his head, and the boy bolted, forgetting all about the bags he had left behind. He had jutsus to learn!

------------

"Found it!" Naruto shouted in triumph, pulling out a large scroll out from beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. Red snorted.

**'Subtle, Mizuki-sensei ain't,' **he said. **'C'mon, open the damn thing already?'**

Red didn't really need to prompt Naruto, because he was already moving outside into the sunlight and opening the scroll without any hesitation. Naru was mumbling something about 'being forbidden for a reason,' but he'd already sort of of agreed to it, so everyone ignored him.

"Kage bunshin, boring..." Naruto muttered, his eyes flickering over the scroll quickly – he learnt to scan-read after a long, long time. "Random interrogation technique, also boring. Ibiki-sensei could teach me that anyway so..."

'**Kage bunshin sounds useful, yeah?' **Red interrupted quickly. **'I mean, it's a buncha solid clones, an' you remember everythin' that's happened to 'em. That's, like, ultimate trainin' technique.'**

_'Well, yeah,'_ Naruto admitted. _'But they're also **bunshin**. And I hate bunshin.'_

He continued to flick over the scroll – "One-handed seals – by altering the chakra paths in your hands and mind blah, blah, high risk, sounds kind of cool, might come back to that. Medic-nin technique, I'm crap at healing, so maybe not... Eight Trigams Sealing Style? What's that?"

**'Weeell,' **Red began in a long, taunting drawl. **'It's a seal-'**

**'And you need a lot of training for seals, so it's far too complicated for us to learn,' **Legacy interrupted hastily. **"Weren't you interested in the one handed seals anyway?'**

Naruto was not convinced by Legacy's quick change of subject (c'mon, not even he was that stupid, whatever Red said) but let it drop for the moment. He'd bug Red about it later, when Legacy was asleep.

_Yeah, those sound cool,'_ he said._ 'Couldn't we write a couple of these down and then practise them later, though?'_

**'I don't think we have anything to write with,' **Naru said uncertainly. **'We could... memorise one between two or something though.'**

**'I say we take the clone one, yeah?' **Red said instantly, and when Naruto started to whine – **'Face it, I'm smarter'n you. I know these things. Now shut up and memorise one yourself.'**

_'You're such an irritating-'_ Naruto began, half-exasperated, half truly annoyed, but Red cut him off.

**'Time's a-wastin',' **he said, and there was a definite impression of a smirk. **'Hey, kage bunshin only has one handseal movement. Score.'**

Naruto looked down at the one-handed seal jutsu, while Naru and Legacy argued on whether they should learn the medic-nin jutsu (apparently, it was forbidden because it cut the blood vessels without damaging skin – so, basically, one hell of an assassination technique). He swore.

"...That's a lot of handseals," he said, and there was a silence. Red whistled.

**'...That is a lot,' **Legacy said, a note of awe in his voice, forgetting about his argument with Naru. **'I don't think we have much of a chance of memorising those.'**

**'Or, alternatively,' **Grey said, sounding as if he were reciting well-known knowledge, **'The user may choose to engrave handseals into their skin, which can be activated and used as if normal handseals by channeling chakra through them.'**

'Where did you get that from?' Naruto asked, trying not to sound too impressed.

**'The scroll,' **Greysaid, his voice bland. Naruto flushed and looked down to see the writing scrawled out there, with the appropriate symbols written out beneath it.

"That looks like it would hurt," he said aloud, thoughtfully. "Do you reckon I could get Ibiki-sensei to do it for me?"

**'I dunno,' **Red said. **'That'd be aidin' an' abettin' or somethin' like that.'**

_'...That would just be no, then?'_

**'Yeah, pretty much,' **Red replied, and Naruto considered this.

_'How much time do we have left?'_

**'What, d'you reckon we've got a clock in here or somethin'?' **Red demanded derisively, but it was Grey who interrupted his mockery.

**'Sixty eight minutes.'**

There was a long silence, in which it seemed like Red was searching for something to say. Eventually he sighed. **'Y'know what? I was goin' to make some cruel and sardonic comment here, but forget it. Teasin' Grey ain't any fun.'**

**'Naruto, you aren't thinking of-'** Naru began, but Naruto had already drawn out his kunai.

"Where do you lot reckon I should carve them?" he asked, and Legacy sighed.

**'You really should remember to talk in your head, you know,' **he said. **'Switching from one to another is just strange, and people are going to think you're crazy.'**

Naruto shrugged as if to say 'so what?' and continued to look expectant.

**'Left arm,' **Shi said bluntly. **'Best place.'**

**'Why?' **Naru asked, and Shi seemed to be debating whether to answer or not. Naruto shrugged again. Whatever. He wasn't overly bothered one way or another. He did listen as Shi finally chose to speak up.

'**Fewer breaks. Chakra lines are more sturdy. Less likely to burn out,**' he got out, before subsiding. It was probably the longest thing Naruto'd ever heard Shi say, and he blinked for a second.

"Okaaay," he said softly, placing the tip of the kunai against his skin. "We draw all of the handseals, right? And there's twelve of them?"

**'Yes,' **Grey confirmed, and with a determined look on his face, Naruto dug the kunai in, no more than a few millimetres. A jagged gasp forced its way out of his mouth as he curled it around his wrist, follwoing the symbols on the scroll. That was snake... Now, horse.

His arm felt odd, like fire was beginning to tingle its way down there, the hint of coming pain, and by the fifth symbol, his right hand was shaking almost uncontrollably. Grey steadied the arm and they continued to cut – why weren't the cuts healing? Normally, they'd be gone by now, because of his weird healing thingy, but the blood was still welling out of the cuts and obscuring where he was trying to draw the next symbol.

He was running out of room on his forearm, and Naru was breathing sharply in his mind, even as he tried to help Grey keep the arm steady. Shi was growling something, mumbling under his breath, but Naruto didn't even want to try and make out what he was saying. It was undoubtedly crude – Shi had an alarmingly large vocabulary of swear words.

They moved up, past his elbow to carve the tenth symbol. Ram and rabbit left. No big deal. He could do this. His blood felt like it was boiling as he made another few unsteady cuts. One more symbol. Why wouldn't his hand stop shaking?

Last symbol, last cut, and then it was done and his left arm just wouldn't stop hurting. It felt like... like fire was crawling down it, and he could swear that there was some kind of light gleaming from out behind the symbols as he roughly dug out a few bandages and shoved them on sloppily, one-handed.

_'Think we should go find 'biki-sensei now,'_ Naruto said, trying not to tremble.His hands moved as if of their own volition – oh, Red had taken over; why? - making a shaky handseal over the scroll to transform into a smaller, easily held scroll. Control was released, and Naruto bent down to pick it up.

_'Memorised everything we need?'_ he asked, closing his eyes tightly against the pain that was building up in his head.

**'C'n remember kage bunshin,' **Red said, and his voice sounded weird. **'All we need.'**

**'Medic-nin?' **Legacy slurred out, and Naru whimpered.

**'No way. Head hurts to much to memo- memor- learn it,' **Naru said, but even through the pain in his voice, there was a greater steadiness to his words than the others'.

Naruto nodded once, and shook himself. "Right," he muttered. "Ibiki-sensei. Going."

He swore he stumbled over every bleeding rabbit hole there was on the way to the clearing.

------------

"You look pale," Ibiki said, and that was as close as the sadist ever got to concern, Naruto thought hazily.

"My arm hurts," he whined, uncertainly. "I carved some stuff into it, and it won't stop bleeding. I think I got blood on the scroll." He waved the transformed scroll at Ibiki – and there was, indeed, a couple of blood splatters across the cover. Ibiki snorted.

"How atmospheric," he commented dryly. "What gave you the inspiration to carve things into your arm?"

"The scroll," Naruto said, and it was becoming harder to speak. Everything was starting to go blurry in front of his eyes, and he blinked in confusion, wondering why it wouldn't clear up. None of the others were saying anything, either. "Saw the one-handed seals, an' the alterations with the no-handed seals but carving stuff into your arm, and now my arm's sorta burning and it feels weird and-"

He pitched forward onto the ground, his knees buckling under him, with one last thought.

_'Ibiki-sensei didn't even bother to try and catch me. Bastard.'_


End file.
